Notanical page in my Book

In my non-journal, non-sketchbook I wanted to include a notan-inspired page but didn't want tape on the backside. I penciled some dividing lines and used black acrylic paint, watered down, to paint alternating sections.

Notanical is a word I came up with to describe a notan-type beginning tangled with botanical images. See my original post about notanicals here. In my Book, here's the page I began with.

And here it is, appropriately gussied up:

Notanicals

I've been doing some notan-inspired work recently, a lot of houses but also plants. Botanical things. I like word play and came up with the term "notanical" for these pieces.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Icantoo, Munchin, Opus, Pearlz,
Tipple, Zonked,and an element of Paizel

This one became a rose, and needed to be diagonal.

I tried one with tan instead of white, using CZT Hanny Nura's tangle Icantoo. Imagine the first image with the black and tan reversed; that's what I started with. The second image is the completed notanical. The 'moon' is drawn with copper metallic ink.

Tangles: Icantoo, Pearlz, Printemps

Another black and white one. Those round-cut areas seem to want to be moons!

Notan - houses

At the end of this post last week, I promised to show some notan-style pieces depicting houses and buildings, favorite subject matter of mine. Here they are.

I did two on classic black and white paper.

Then I tried one with white and tan paper. I think this is my least favorite. Perhaps not enough darks.

I was very happy with this black and tan one and hope to do more with these colors.

Finally, I tried a larger one, 6"x 9".

Notan (sort of?)

For a while now I've been interested in the Japanese design principle called Notan, the judicious use of light and dark and the balance between the two. This can be a very equal, 50/50, balance, or you can be a little more liberal in its interpretation.

During Zentangle's Twelve Days of Zentangle in 2017, the 9th day's project involved splicing together two colors of tiles and I'm using that idea in the following examples. You can see a few more examples (using black and tan tiles) here.

To start, I take a black tile and a white tile, place one on top of the other, and carefully cut them apart. Here are two tiles. There are two others with the colors reversed.

Using the two companion tiles to the ones above, here are two completed tiles.

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Knightsbridge, MySwing, Tipple

Tangles: Adente, Pearlz, Prestwood

During InkTober this year, one of the prompts was 'breakable'.

Tangles: Cracked Windows, Rain

Another prompt was 'double' and Notan is a kind of 'double'. Also, I doubled it and did two, one in only black and white and one bringing in color. On the colored one I used metallic inks on the black paper.

I find this a fascination process, and shortly I'll show you some pieces using this method with houses as subject matter (you know me and houses!).

13 days of InkTober

I had planned to do the prompts from Inktober on tile-sized paper and the list of tangles for the month in my Tangle-a-Day calendar. However, I got a nasty cold and was left with a barking cough and little energy. I came around later in the month but the calendar was abandoned.

October 1: POISON
I was not happy with this first effort.

Tangles: All Boxed Up, Cirquital, Crescent Moon, SlowPoke

But here's my calendar for the first three days using tangle prompts. I did a few random other days but for some reason didn't keep up with this.

October 6: DROOLING

Tangles: Diva Dance and Auras

October 8: STAR
Done on a Travelling Tangle Project tile from I can't remember who (apologies!).

After a long break I got back into it. I think I wasn't that inspired by the prompts and, granted, I was sick for about a week and a half!

October 20: BREAKABLE
Done on half-white, half-black paper with white and black and gray inks.

Tangles: Cracked Windows, Rain

October 21: DRAIN
Done on 3.5" eco-dyed paper.

Tangles: Printemps, Tipple

October 22: EXPENSIVE
Done on 3.5" eco-dyed paper. I used gold ink for Printemps in the background; I love the gold on tan.

October 23: MUDDY
Done on a Travelling Tangle Project tile from Toby Schwarz. He did the tea-staining, the two Gneisses and some Seawave, and I did the rest.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Diva Dance, Gneiss, Seawave, Tipple
and lots of Auras

October 25: PRICKLY
Done on an eco-dyed tile. It's not quite this dull but it is rather dark.

Tangles: Tipple... sort of?

October 27: THUNDER

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Pearlz, Prestwood variation

October 28: GIFT
Done on 4.5" eco-dyed paper and begun many months ago. Includes gold acrylic paint peels.

Tangles: Diva Dance, Finery, Hollibaugh, Icantoo, Leaflet,
Opus, Pearlz, Tipple

October 29: DOUBLE
I've been interested in the Japanese concept of Notan for some time and have been investigating it a little recently. It seemed like an excellent way to "double". I decided to do one in strict black and white, and to add color to the other.

Tangles: Auras, Black Pearlz and lots of lines!

And that's all folks!